Our story isn't over yet
by Shadowpulse160
Summary: Godcat's down and Matt, Natalie, Lance and Anna have saved the world. Is it all over? Of course not, a new adventure awaits and the team will finally realize how important they are to each other, whether it's foe smashing or their own feelings. When is life ever easy for the EBF cast? Fights are turn based for the first few chapters.
1. Chapter 1 Sacrifice

**EBF Our story isn't over yet: Chapter 1 The Sacrifice**

"Godcat's down, we did it, we got rid of her" Lance gazed in awe at the wreckage of the massive Creator and Destroyer that she had had left behind.

"Ok so that's four times me and Natzs have saved the world, two times for lance and one for Anna" Matt mused, leaning on Heaven's gate, the very blade that moments ago slew the Destroyer with an incredibly powerful (and lucky) five crit Cleave finish.

"This fight took a lot longer then all the other times though…" Natalie puffed weakly, kneeling down as she did so.

"I did it, the jewels are safe and our world hasn't ended!" sobbed Anna crumpling in a heap on the ground.

The four each took a while to catch their breath and for the next few minutes no words were spoken, no words needed to be spoken, they had won and that was all that they needed.

 ** _An hour later_**

"Are you kidding me? You're going to leave just like that?" chorused Natalie and Matt while Lance stood silently with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"Well I think I've overstayed my welcome already, I mean I was never meant to be in the party right? You were just helping me because I forced you too at bow point and…" Anna never got to finish because Natalie started hugging her so tight she was physically unable to breathe.

"You idiot, we're your friends! We helped you because we wanted to, not because we were forced" Natalie cried into Anna's shoulder.

 _Well we kind of were forced…_ Matt thought to himself.

"She's right you may have shot me in the head at the beginning but we're friends Anna, in fact we're more than friends we're a team remember" Matt said as he flashed his trademark idiotic grin at the archer.

"I-I...may have been wrong about the little girl remark" Lance finally spoke awkwardly "you're...you're one us" Lance said, giving a genuine smile for once. Matt brought Lance in and the embraced the two girls while Lance awkwardly slung his arms around them, making sure not to put any weight onto the girls as if afraid of hurting them. They stayed there for a while just enjoying each other's presence.

"Why would you guys want me? I mean all I did was shoot you and boss you around and…" once again Anna gets cut off:

"First of all you didn't shoot us nearly as much as what I did to those two when I first met them" Lance chuckled gesturing to Matt and Natalie "Wasn't just bullets too, I fired tank shells, napalm, ran them over and even launched nukes and Ion cannoned them! Not to mention that how I tried to create a new world by destroying the old one, trust me when it comes to being an asshole you don't even come close" Lance smirked. "I almost succeeded too but after I met these two they destroyed my beautiful Valkyrie and that's when I finally managed to realise that perhaps I was being a little too extreme. We became friends after that. We're more than friends now we're practically family and Anna you're a part of us now whether you like it or not" Lance's voice slowly softened until it was barely a whisper.

"Come on Anna we just beat Godcat, now's the time for celebration not stupid comments, leave the stupidity for the guys" Natalie finally pulled away and her tears stopped flowing. Her sad frown was replaced by a lovely radiant smile, seeming to light up the entire temple. Natalie, the Light/Queen of the party shows itself.

"You know, I'm hungry let's get some pizza, we could do with some complete health and mana regeneration" Matt decreed, beckoning the party to follow him to the king slime bunny. Matt the Meatshield/Glutton sprinted forth.

"Ok let's go back to Greenwood then" Anna said starting to return to her normal assertive self and quickly trudged in front of Matt, picking up flowers and cuddling bushes along the way. Anna the Nature Girl/Minority giggled.

"Stop staring at my boobs Lance let's go" Natalie teased.

"Say what now? Uhm, uh you know we're just going to get attacked again right?" Lance looked up from his Dark Blaster which he was examining for damage. Lance the Pessimist/Socially Awkward With Women blushed.

"Nothing come on", Natalie giggled and pulled them both towards the waiting slime bunny.

Lance was surprised, Natalie had never acted so warmly to him before, maybe that holy beam from the Creator damaged her mentally?

"Back home then" said Anna wistfully.

"Sure, there's bound to be food there and we can maybe buy some swords"

"Or we could get some civilised weaponry like some guns"

"We can go shopping for more clothes there Anna!"

The green haired ranger smiled, yes this was where she belonged, finally letting go of her insecurities, she reached over to the slime bunny and said:

"Greenwood Village" and the four teleported away, leaving the ancient ruins behind.

* * *

"Oh man this is some good pizza" Matt mumbled with a full mouth.

The other three rolled their eyes and thought about how much the mountain of pizza was worth. Considering each slice was around 10,000 gold it wasn't a small number but then they had saved the world so why not?

Each of them sat there silently (except for sounds of eating) just enjoying each others company. Lance for the first time since the battle observed his teammates:

Matt still had Heaven's Gate equipped from the final Cleave against the Destroyer, he was wearing his trademark pirate hat and a black ninja suit. Natalie had the Seraphim staff, both wings slightly burnt but still shining. She also had the Pope's dress and the Pope's hat on. Anna was wearing her black Dark gown which she paired with her Black widow bow and Cat Ears on her head. All three looked battle worn but content and then Lance stared down into a shard of ice which was lying on the floor showing his reflection. He had his black officers hat and jacket on, swastikas having being taken off and replaced with iron crosses and God's Hand slung on his back. For once he was smiling like the others. It felt good as he sat there contemplating, lost in his own world thinking about the future but it wasn't long before his teammates came up with a plan of action.

"Come on Lance!" Anna yelled in his ear and dragged him towards the waiting slime cat. Before he could respond the party had appeared in Battle Mountain.

"Ok we're going left" Matt decreed and the others followed. The first thing the party saw was what looked like their friend the Mighty Oak except it was loaded with armour and had a hand cannon. Its whole body and head was just a big metal cube with a slit for his green eyes shining through and a mouth with metal teeth fitting together like those of a skull do. Its right had a metal ram on it which looked lethal and the moment it saw them it moved to engage, obviously hostile. Natalie on reflex released a scanbot to analyse the new enemy.

"Armoured Oak and its weak to Earth, Poison and Dark damage" Natalie called out to the rest of the party.

"Alright let's do this!" Matt charged ahead changing his sword to the Gash Club and hit the ground, causing the giant sword of Cataclysm to appear under and impale the Oak.

Lance followed suit except he didn't bother changing his Shadow Blaster since it was dark element and fired antimatter at the giant tree. Natalie opted to defend the party and casted barrier while Anna thought it was a good time to use reflex, giving them a better chance to dodge the oncoming attacks.

The Oak's right arm shot out on a chain and hit Matt in the chest knocking him backward and quickly followed up with a cannon blast from its left, hitting Matt again, knocking his hp down to around 20% and staggering him. Matt of course only used this to fuel his anger and he raised his club to the air in preparation for his signature move: 'Cleaver'. The club flashed and Matt ran forth swinging his sword in overhead arc which quickly transitioned into his five hit combo making the air where his sword had been flash red with power with each of the strikes causing the Armoured Oak to lose about 5% of its hp. Lance fired on the Armoured Oak with a full six round Unload barrage causing his gun to overheat and become less effective temporarily. Natalie took the chance to heal Matt back up and Anna just snapped a triple shot off into the mockery of her friend. The battle went on for another five minutes with pretty much the same thing happening: Matt swinging wildly, Natalie healing the party, Anna supporting the party with Reflex and Guardian while sneaking in Combo Shots and Gaia Blossoms and Lance going all out with Antimatter, Unload and the occasional poison gas. They had reduced the Oak to about 40% of its health when Lance suddenly stopped and defended instead of continuing his all out offensive, he had a feeling something was wrong.

"Guy's brace yourselves, something big is going to happen" Lance told the others, his red eyes narrowing.

"Lance look low he is, I ain't defending!" Matt continued to slash away.

"I agree with you but I have to heal the party Lance" Natalie said as she used Heal More to heal the whole party.

"Can't be that bad" Anna smirked and snapped off another triple shot.

Famous last words. The Amoured Oak this time instead of hitting them physically, opened its metal mouth where ten giant silver cannons jutted out, all of them pointing at them as they started glowing orange.

"Oh shii-" Matt fell after being struck by three shells.

"Eeee!" squealed Natalie as she too crumbled under the onslaught.

"For the love of-" the same fate befell Anna.

Lance, since he had defended only took half as much damage as what the other three did but even so he was almost killed too. His Limit Break bar was only about half full and he knew he was screwed. They were going to die to an overgrown tree after they had 'defeated' Godcat herself. How humiliating. Looking at his fallen friends, his eyes lingered on Natalie and pain filled his heart. He knew that if she died a part of him would die with her, a world without the red haired mage was a world where they where the party dissipated because it lost the only thing holding it together but more importantly a world where his outside image of being a socially awkward idiot would no longer be put on, it would become a reality. She was the one that had given him hope for the broken world and somewhere along the line grew his heart until she was no longer just a friend. His eyes moved to Matt, the stupid swordsman that warmed his previously cold heart and restored his humanity. They had grown close through their laughter and joking and he would be sorely missed. Lance's eyes then drifted to Anna, she was abusive, disagreeing and violent but even so he still cared for her deeply, facing god together would do that to you.

Despite the situation he laughed a little to himself, these weren't just anyone. They were the family that he had never known, and he would never forgive those that harmed his family. With that thought as if by divine intervention, a symbol appeared floating in front of him. It was the symbol of sacrifice which he wasn't meant to be able ever have access to. Something told him that this was his last chance. This powerful sigil that required his death to activate. The only chance to save those lying on the ground.

"You harmed them. Now you'll pay" he gritted his teeth as he grabbed the symbol and loaded it into his Gunblade. A black swirling vortex formed around him and the sky itself turned to black. Pointing the pulsing rifle at the Oak and donning his scanner he took one last look at Natalie before diving underneath the Oak, aiming upwards and pulling the trigger. A huge beam of darkness scythed straight through the Oak, bisecting it with a horrific creak. As the two halves of the Oak started to fall the most horrendous pain imaginable shot through his body like getting run through by ten Blades of Hell. He was dying. Every inch of his body was straining and burning up. Lance in his final moments of coherent thought threw a coffee onto Natalie and with this accomplished he collapsed, Natalie's shocked face filling his vision as it went dark.

 ** _Natalie_**

Damn it I knew I shouldn't have followed Matt's example blindly, dying always sucks and this time it sucks even more because I know the chances of us winning the fight are virtually zero. Lance was the only one who had the sense to defend so he's probably the one that's just resurrected me. I wonder where he found a turn to do that? I mean surely the Oak would just kill us both on the next turn right? Well nothing for it, I've returned to my body now. Time to open my eyes.

It's bright, so freaking bright just like every other time I've died. It only lasts a few seconds though and I quickly regain my vision. Oh god, what the hell happened? The Armoured Oak is lying in a destroyed heap, bisected down the middle by, assuming from the chunk missing, something that was about a metre wide. While I know Lance is an extremely capable magic and physical damage dealer I still find it hard to believe he did that. Getting onto my feet, I notice him finally. His red eyes giving one last relieved look before flickering and fading as his body topples over. His Gunblade is emitting a hellish light and his body looks like it went through ten rounds with both Godcats. The only way such wounds could ever be achieved would be Sacrifice which shouldn't be possible because it's not a skill that Lance can learn.

Even if he could why would Lance go to those lengths to save us? Sacrifice is the most painful way to die and I never thought anyone would willingly go through with it. All of those thoughts flash through my head in less then a second and I explode into action. Picking up Seraphim I put my hands to my chest in a prayer and cast Genesis to revive the whole party. The giant holy cross with wings appears and it grows, grows until it's visible from the space and then it explodes in holy energy.

"Ugh I almost made it to the light at the end of the tunnel that time" Matt groaned.

"Did you miss me?" Anna chirped. Lance hasn't made a sound. Cold ice fills my heart and I can feel my head start to swim. This couldn't be how our fight ends, with the ACTUAL death of a comrade who just saved our lives. That isn't how the story goes, the story is that everyone is ok and the whole party continues on to the next fight refreshed, not this. No. I refuse. Normally I can only cast Genesis after taking a large amount of damage because using it multiple times would likely burn me out. I don't care his time. This time it's different. Lance's life is on the line because of me and like hell I'm going to let it go. The cross of Genesis appears again except this time it's focused only on Lance and it's bigger than it's ever been.

"Natz what are you doing?" Matt stared.

"That skill is induced by pain, did you drink our last chilly bottle?" Anna asked.

I don't answer either question and just continue focusing my energy into the cross. Slowly the dark magic starts to recede and Lance's breathing returns fast, ragged and somewhat painfully but it returns. I finally let go of the breath I was holding and my heart starts to warm up again. I pop a heal on Lance and it seemed to do the trick, his breathing is normal now appears to just be asleep. He's safe. Seeing Lance's complexion return to normal flushes the adrenaline out of my body and my energy expenditure catches up to me. The world starts fazing out around me and the last thing I know is that I'm falling over...

* * *

"Looks like Lance sacrificed himself for us" Anna whispered to Matt.

"Yeah" Matt looked down with an undecipherable expression on his face.

"We should let them have some rest, they deserve that at least" Anna said walking away.

Matt for once looked like he was deep in thought and after a minute he followed Anna into the bushes, leaving Natalie and Lance lying side by side. Unconsciously Lance placed his arm around Natalie's still body on top of him clutching her closer as the night began to fall.


	2. Chapter 2 Teardrops

**Our story isn't over yet: Chapter 2 Teardrops**

 ** _Matt_**

Look at me. The so called leader of the group. The tank, the guy who's meant to take the punishment for his teammates. The one who's meant to protect them. Well that worked out great didn't it? Due to my incompetence Lance's been forced to use a skill that he's not even meant to have access to and Natz had to use Genesis twice in a row to keep each of us alive and without consuming a chilli bottle the results could be extremely dangerous. Most likely it's either going to be fatal or she loses her abilities and powers. Damn it I need to kill something to clear my head.

"Anna let's go farm some monoliths while they rest" I try to say as calmly as I can. I still think I shouted.

"Sounds good, No Legs keep watch over them until we get back ok?" Anna smiled at our pet/friend cat.

"Meow!" No Legs got up and stood alert, short sword appearing and floating in the place where his hands should be.

"Let's go" Anna's eyes grew hard as she swapped her Black Widow bow for the Juggernaut, a bow that fired bomb tipped explosive arrows in preparation for fighting the massive stone slabs. Without waiting for my response she sprinted away. I can feel my normal slightly idiotic but trademark grin start to appear on my face and I quickly run to catch up to the green haired ranger.

 ** _Lance_**

" _When I created humans never did the thought cross my mind even once that humans could be so noble. Lance the Gunner you're an interesting one. Purposely hiding behind a perverted demeanour so that your friends aren't able to get too attached to you. Why is that?"_ an ethereal voice pierced my veil of unconsciousness.

"Ugh" I groan, opening my eyes and sitting up. Oh Godcat help me. It's the Godcats. Thanks to my reflexes I'm already standing up and pointing my right arm which was holding my gunblade at the two of them. This is bad. The two Godcats seem to be amused by something and after a minute of confusion I finally notice what. I'm holding an unconsciousness Natz in my left arm.

"What the hell happened?" I expect my eyes are probably popping out of their sockets with shock. I mean it's not every day you sacrifice your life, wake up in space with two immortal beings that you just defeated looking at you holding the love of your life who's with you for some reason. Oh wait I'm in space?

I look around at my surroundings. Around us it's the endless expanse of space with the earth lying below us. There's my Ion Cannon floating in orbit below us. How is this possible? What's even more impossible is the fact that a crowd of cosmic monoliths are backing up the dark Godcat and a cluster of Sky monoliths and holy eyes are at the light Godcat's flank. Did I mention this is bad? In fact even worse my arms are starting to shake with exhaustion. Obviously the aftereffects of Sacrifice are still present. To be honest I'm surprised I'm even alive but that doesn't matter because I'm going to be dead very soon. Hopefully I can manage to save Natz somehow.

"Lance? You're awake? I didn't think you were going to make it even after the second Genesis…" Natz woke up and even with those words her eyes are already fading with fatigue.

"Second Genesis?" I exclaim, eyes growing wide at the possible implications "please tell me you used the chilli bottle Natz" I ask urgently and hoping…

"No there was no time" Natz's eyes close. Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! I used Sacrifice to protect her (and the other two as well I guess) why couldn't that have just worked? Instead she's gone and burnt her soul and energy out for me. At the very least she's going to lose her spellcasting power and at worst she's going to die. Both end in the party being down a member and I don't think I could go on without her. My life isn't worth saving anyway. With this realisation I let my gunblade fall to the ground (somehow we're standing in space) and I fall to my knees cradling my right arm around her as well and pulling her against my chest. Her heart rate's slowing down and her warmth is fading. It's almost at the level it was at when Akron stole our powers and it's only going to get worse. For the first time in fourteen years I can feel tears flowing down my cheeks and drip onto my officers jacket. No mortal power can save her now.

"Finish what you came here for Godcat" I yell at the glowing pair and close my eyes. I wonder how they're going to kill us. Will they bring back their avatars the Creator and the Destroyer to crush us? Will we die instantly? Will they torture us? A million thoughts flow through my head in the space of two seconds. The last reserves of energy in Natz's body are starting leave. Death should be imminent. Instead of vaporising the two of us however Godcat began to speak:

" _The four of you have proven worthy, you defeated my herald Akron and you even managed to best both of our avatars at the same time. I said I was going to be watching over you. Not that I was going to kill you. Now rise, your time is now"_ with those words the feeling I get when I level up hits me except it's one hundred times stronger than it normally is. I open my eyes and the sight awes me. We're inside a pillar of light that looks like Natz's revival except it's a thousand times as large. The two Godcats are standing on either side of us with their arms raised, obviously the casters. The dark Godcat then gestured downwards with her right arm and the pillar grows smaller but the energy starts increasing in density along with this until it's now a ray the size of a needle and is being given to Natz to be absorbed. Her heart rate quickens and her body starts heating up. What the hell just happened?

Natz opens her eyes and my heart soars. Apparently mortal powers weren't all the good that existed in this world.

"Am I dead already?" Natz whispers eyes tearing up.

"No, Godcat saved you Natz, you're ok" the tears from before return. I don't mind.

"My magic, she even saved my magic" Natz stares at the mini star trail her hands left behind when she wiped her tears off her face.

" _Of course I did, you need them mage"_ the light Godcat shimmered.

" _If the two of you were to die your friends and the world be destroyed quicker than I toppled the ancient cat civlisations"_ the sinister voice of the dark Godcat explained " _in fact I'm going to show the two of you something while you wait for the power surge to stabilise in your body. Sit down and look through here"_ she gestures and a hole opens allowing us to see through. It's Matt and Anna.

 ** _Anna_**

"That's twelve and we've both levelled up. I think it's time we checked on the two of them don't you think?" I glance at Matt whose goofy smile disappears as he nods grimly.

"Ok, I'll lead the way" he quipped trying to seem cheerful but the act isn't fooling me. He's worried for our friends. Perfectly understandable, I'm also scared out of my mind for them.

As we approach the camp we left them in I suddenly feel nauseous. Something is wrong. I can feel it in the air. No Legs quickly vaults over a bush and lands on Matt's hat shaking. His short sword has been split at the hilt and his fur is burnt. What on earth happened?

"Meow, Meow!" No Legs urgently screeched as he pointed in the direction where Natz and Lance were sleeping. Oh crap.

"Come on Anna" Matt screamed and rushed into the bushes, just as anxious I follow straight behind but when I catch up I can see him visibly shaking. Something horrible is waiting. I look over his shoulder and see it. It's Lance and Natz. Their skin colour looks an unhealthy shade of reddish brown and their eyes are just black holes with a small pin prick of red in the middle. The bottom half of Lance's jaw looks like it's rotted away just leaving the skull there and Natz has a homunculus symbol above her boobs. Lance is decked out in his Officers Hat and Jacket as well as his Shadow Blaster strapped on his back. Natz is dressed in the Dark Gown, a completely black pair of the Dark Baubles and she's holding some kind of scythe, the kind that the Grim Reaper is portrayed with in myths and lehends. Both turn to stare at us murderously and I can feel my blood freeze. What the hell happened to our friends?

"Anna I don't think I can fight them" Matt looks at me from the corner of his eye nervously.

"I don't I can either but I think we have to" I shudder.

"Ok I'll go first" Matt declares casting protect on us.

"My turn then" I grimace and cast Reflect boosting our evade. It proves pointless. We came into this fight so underprepared. Matt is wearing his dark armour and Lance's Officers Hat and he's still got the Heaven's Gate blade in hand. I've got the Red Dress on with the Thunder baubles in my hair and Juggernaut in my hand. We don't even know what the two of them are going to do, what they're capable of or what they're weak to. We're screwed.

Without a word Dark Lance loads a singular bullet and takes aim at Matt. Boom. Headshot. Matt falls to the ground, instant death. What the hell. Natz defends instead but something's unusual about it this time. She's not just defended but she's also buffed her evade, defence and accuracy while casting berserk on herself. What the hell is going on?

"Matt get up" I screech urgently and drop a coffee on him.

"Damn it Anna why haven't you killed them yet" Matt starts to get and stares at our opponents. After a second or two of consideration he drops a scan bot. The little robot knee high robot lets out a green beam from its green eyehole thing and starts scanning our friends. The information read Dark Lance and Dark Natalie. Both are weak to holy damage and resistant to dark damage but Lance is super susceptible to bomb damage while Natalie is the same with wind. Lance has high evade and Natz has ludicrously high magic resistance and abysmally low defence. What the hell is even happening?

"We have to fight them Anna" Matt's expression hardens "they're like this because of us, we have let them rest in peace".

"Ok, good thing I have my bombs equipped, let's go after Lance first" a shiver is running down my spine. This is so wrong. We were meant to be together. They promised they wouldn't abandon me damn it.

My turn, I load up three arrows into my bow and fire them all at Lance. He seems to have taken a large amount of damage but with the absurd size of his health bar that seems wildly irrelevant. It's barely moved at all. With that our turn ends. Kind of pathetic really.

Lance starts to lift up his gunblade again. This time shooting twice and taking out Matt again. Natz starts to lift her scythe. Wait what? Natz doesn't use physical attacks ever! Apparently this one does and she starts to bring it down onto me. Luckily I dodge it and I breathe a sigh of relief. I don't even notice the second swing.

 ** _Natalie_**

"Thanks for giving us a second chance Godcat but we really gotta go" Lance quickly bolts up with me still in his arms and moves to run into the tunnel that the light Godcat's just finished constructing. Our friends need saving.

" _Goodbye Gunner, goodbye Mage, as I said before we'll be watching"_ the light Godcat waves at us and seems to smile. I can't really tell since she's glowing so brightly I can barely even make out her mouth.

With a quick salute from Lance and a wave from me Lance starts sprinting towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Lance still hasn't put me down yet, he's being so chivalrous, something that I did not expect from him, just as I did not expect him to make the sacrifice for us. Now that I think about it we know almost nothing about Lance. Has he always been like this? Compassionate and self-sacrificing? Why have we not seen this side of Lance before?

" _Because, Mage, he's been hiding it from you. He's terrified that you'll abandon him if he shows that he's not so stoic after all. Humans. Truly the strangest species I've created"_ light Godcat's voice echoes in my head. I probably should be worried about my thoughts being read but that's not important right now. What's important is that suddenly I feel like a massive prick for how I've treated Lance. Why would he think we'd leave him if we knew he had a softer side to him? Oh Godcat. I need to tell him that before he does something stupid again.

"Natz you're crying, does it hurt? Is your magic fluctuating?" Lance stares down at me with those red eyes that had once seemed creepy to me a long time ago, now comforting and filled with concern. I can also sense fear and apologetic shame in there. The injustice of Lance feeling shame sets off another flood of tears and for once I just want to hear Lance make a comment about my boobs or something. That's meant to be the normal Lance. Not this careful, concerned and protective Lance damn it.

"Don't worry Natz, you can leave the fighting to me, I'll protect you I promise" a fire starts burning in Lance's eyes and my heartbeats starts to quicken. I can feel my magic heating up at my fingertips again and as a test I cast barrier on us. The magical red grid surrounds us shielding from magical attacks. I've never felt better.

"I'm never letting you fight alone and kill yourself again, we're doing this together" I smirk.

"Looks like I won't even have to do anything then" Lance grins as we make it to the end of the tunnel just in time to see Anna about to get decapitated by evil me's scythe while evil Lance has his scope trained on Anna's head. Like hell we're going to let that happen. Lance and I burst into action simultaneously. You would think that casting judgement or unloading a six round bullet barrage would be difficult when you're holding or being held by someone. Well turns out it isn't. My judgement hits evil Lance and knocks him away from us, disrupting his shot and somehow syphoning and weakening him while Lance's unload staggers and weakens evil me while debuffing her attack and magic attack. Since when did our abilities have those effects with them?

As the evil us try to recover Lance revives Matt with a coffee and I cast a healmore on the party to bring Matt and Anna back to full health. Anna looks a little shocked from the near death experience and Matt looks overjoyed at seeing us and pulls me into an embrace. Somehow this time I enjoy it a lot less then I usually do when Matt makes a show of physical affection and break away a little quicker than I normally would. What on earth is going on? I don't really have time to think about it though because evil Lance and evil me have returned. Matt's jaw drops as he looks from them to us back and forth while Anna's eyes light up with understanding and joy. I honestly don't see how being attacked by evil versions of us is a good thing.

Our two doppelgangers look pissed and evil Lance acts first. He starts to pull out a radio exactly like the one that my Lance always… my Lance? OUR Lance always uses and with a loud thrum I can see the tell-tale glow of the Ion Cannon firing lighting up the sky. Oh Godcat help us. Luckily the effects are nowhere near as devastating as they could have been. I've got my Pikachu badge on so I took a lot less damage and Lance dodged it with his quick reflexes and high evade. Matt's golden armour allows him to go unscathed and Anna wasn't caught in the blast. Matt did get stunned though which is a downside. Evil me then decides to follow evil Lance's example up by opening a black hole on us. Matt gets absolutely ripped apart and dies again but my Pope dress allows me to take about half-ish damage again and Lance's Officer's Jacket and Phantom rifle allows him to absorb and heal from it.

Our turn now. I quickly revive Matt who has taken enough damage to use a limit break and Lance calls in an airstrike on his evil double. It's the massive black missile and after a second it explodes for a ludicrous amount of damage on both of them. Matt opens a rift to his sword dimension above them and casts Ragnarok. A collection of seven massive swords appear from the rift and begin to fall onto them. When the final sword, the supersized Heaven's Gate landed, Lance's hp has been reduced to about twenty five percent. He should be done for soon. Evil Lance appears to realise this too or something and starts loading six bullets into his gunblade. Surely he can't be using unload? Damn it he is. Matt falls again and Lance and I take huge amounts of damage. Evil me then casted a pulsar and both of us fall… And I immediately get up again because of Pope dresses autorevive ability. Damn right. I don't bother to revive Matt this time and just tell Anna to step over his body. I cast Judgement on evil Lance and take his hp down to about ten percent and gesture for my… damn it OUR Lance to finish him off. Lance drops the Valkyrie on them and proceeds to cast Oblivion, finally defeating his evil double and also damaging evil me. As evil Lance hit the ground he dissolves into a swarm of black spirits. One down, one to go. Anna quickly shoots evil me with a soul arrow and ends our turn. Evil me casts a firestorm on us which does practically nothing to Lance but hit me and Anna really hard. The barrier's starting to wear off.

Lance asks Anna to cleanse his attack debuff and Anna obliges. Lance straight away packs in his bullets and uses his signature ability unload again hurting evil me significantly and triggering her limit break. I cast a healmore in preparation for the coming hurt.

A giant ball of fire appears in front of us and starts getting smaller and more compressed, about to explode. Evil me's casted a Supernova. The explosion that ensues can be seen from space and the heat is unimaginable. Crap I can't stand anymore.

 ** _Lance_**

Thud. Thud. Natz and Anna have both fallen to the Supernova. This is bad. I throw a coffee at Natz and with a groan she gets up and rubs her head. Looking at her evil self, she remembers and casts a healmore again to cure our wounds. Just us two stand now. Evil Natalie decides to just pulsar us which is almost useless due to our high dark resistance and ends her turn. What an idiot.

Even though my gun is overheating and is thus less effective I load another six rounds and unload on her again. With the fifty percent damage debuff I only get evil Natalie down to about one thousand hp and just like how Natz gave me the courtesy of killing myself I do her the same. She glady obliges. A judgement beam consecrates the ground evil Natalie's standing on and she is no more. Victory. In the heat of the moment I embrace Natz and surprisingly she hugs me back. She only does that to Matt usually. Already everything is worth it.

"Lance, do me a favour ok?" Natz whispers into my chest.

"Shoot" I smile down at her.

"Don't ever use Sacrifice or a kamikaze ability ever again" Natz suddenly rears her head up at me with eyes that are so broken and pleading that I start to feel ashamed for making her this way. There's nothing I can do but nod. Her one look's destroyed my ability to speak. Godcat help me.

 ** _Meanwhile_**

" _So do you think the Gunner will ever just say it?"_ the light aspect mused to the dark one.

" _He's stopped himself for the last couple of years so why would he now?"_ the dark aspect smirks.

" _Things have changed, you'll see, I'm not the creator for nothing"_ the light aspect floats away.

" _Hm"_ the dark aspect took one more look at the scene and realised that even though she was meant to be the destructive one and creating meant little to her, she still wanted her other half to be right about this.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading, please tell me if you think I've gotten any characters or any parts wrong or out of character. This should be believable in the context of the EBF universe and any help with that would be great._


	3. Chapter 3 Thank You

**Our story isn't over yet: Chapter 3 Thank You**

 ** _Lance_**

"Lance, Natz where did the two of you go?" Anna sat up rubbing her head.

"Yeah we thought that those two were you" Matt did the same and grimaced.

"Well we were with Godcat who instead of almost destroying us utterly like last time, saved my life" smiled Natalie "sorry we weren't here to take on our evil doubles though" she looked down.

"No problem as long as you're both safe" Matt stood up and stretched. I'm pretty sure I heard some bones cracking back into place.

"Well we should probably try to take on the next boss now" I hoist the long barrelled mini bomber onto my back and grab Natz's right hand as I hoist her onto her feet. She blushes, Matt looks confused and Anna raises one eyebrow and smirks. That might have been a mistake.

"Come on then, time's flying away" Anna hops to her feet and after giving me a wink starts walking into east towards the crystal cavern like area. I give out a sigh of relief; she's just given me an opportunity to not have to deal with Matt. Still with Natz's right hand in my left I quickly run to follow Anna. Matt looks slightly anguished as he moves to catch up, I just hope we find the boss fast; otherwise he might question me before he forgets.

The cave is actually quite small but that doesn't detract from its beauty. All around us long white crystals jut out of the walls. The silvery walls themselves all glisten and sparkle. A little too much sparkle for rock now that I think about it. Wait a second…

"DIAMONDS!" Matt shouts, "OH MY GODCAT LOOK AT THE DIAMONDS, WE'RE RICH" he starts laughing and runs forward overtaking Anna quickly but as he turns the corner he freezes. That can only mean one thing and we all know it. Giving Natz's hand one last squeeze I hand her a carton of orange juice that I had planned to save for some special occasion. I think the last couple of hours qualify. With a grateful nod and a shy smile she takes a deep gulp and her health is boosted by 70%. Anna grins at me and I remember what I needed to do.

"Natz give me and Anna a second, go join Matt, we'll be there soon" I whisper to Natz and run up to the grinning ranger. As I'm making my way over I pull out a small packet from my backpack. Inside is an energy drink and a beer. I hand both to Anna.

"Thanks" I smile gratefully.

"Nah no problem, you know I'm all for what's happening but I think there might be someone who isn't…" she trails off and glances meaningfully at Matt who's drooling with a blank expression on his face for some reason. Right next to him stands Natz and she's staring at the two of us a little apprehensively. We should probably finish up quickly.

"Don't tell him, at least not now, I haven't sorted it out yet" I say urgently to the green haired ranger whose grin grows even larger. Never a good sign.

"Ok you can count on me but when I give you the signal make the move, now let's go take a look at what's got Matt so worked up" Anna says as she puts the beer and energy drink in one of her five thousand pockets as she half skips half runs over. Give the signal? What could she mean? Shaking my head I run after her. Somehow even with my guns weighing me down we reach there at the same time. High speed isn't just useful in battle I guess. Before I can take my place next to Matt though, Natz pulls me to the side.

"What were you doing with Anna? You know she's like seventeen and you're like twenty four right?" Natz scowls suspiciously, almost like she's…jealous? Of what is the question.

"Come on do you really think I'd do something like that? Nah I was just thanking her properly for a time she saved my life before" I think up on the spot and technically I wasn't even lying, I probably would have ended up skewered by a certain blonde sword-wielding maniac.

"I revive you all the time. What about me?" Natz pouts. Ok, something's seriously up here. Normally she wouldn't care, did the magical exhaustion cause some kind of issue? She hasn't been like this since our trip to destroy Akron!

"Uh yeah well yours requires more work because you've done more and uh I still need to work on it a bit" I blurt out. Anything to get her off my case and to make Anna stop her stifled giggling.

"Hmph, ok then" Natz cools down, completely mollified. Phew, dodged that bullet.

"Now let's see what's got Matt foaming at the mouth" I grip her hand and walk the two of us over. The sight that awaits is both the most beautiful sight I have ever seen and probably also one of the most dangerous in existence. It looks like the giant crystal golem we fought in the Crystal Caverns a while back except instead of red, yellow and blue crystals jutting out, there are only clear ones this time. On closer inspection I see them for what they really are. They're diamonds. The boss is literally a giant walking cluster of diamonds.

"You guys are finally here, quick let's kill this thing so we can mine it" Matt's grin grows even wider as he pulls out his favourite sword, Heaven's Gate. I guess that's ok because we don't know what this guy is weak to yet. If I had to guess though I would say that bomb should work and since I already have my mini bomber equipped I don't bother changing my gear. Anna has her Juggernaut and Natz has Seraphim. All in all our equipment should suffice until we scan it. The golem starts walking over on its four legs. I guess it's itching for a fight too. Immediately a bunch of elemental bits exactly like the ones that the previous golem summoned appear and move quickly to the diamond golems side. One that we haven't seen before also appears. It looks like to like it's made out of diamond just like the Golem. This should be interesting.

A barrage of lightning, fire and ice from the elemental bits quickly bombard Matt, stunning, burning and freezing him. The fourth diamond bit buffs up the golem's attack. Oh Godcat this could be bad. I've proven correct as it trudges over and stabs the frozen Matt with its tail, instantly killing him. Well at least it's our turn now. Anna quickly summons a scanbot and reads out the information.

"Diamond Golem, weak to bomb and dark. Heals from holy so change your Seraphim Natz and mainly uses holy attacks, same with the diamond bit" Anna calls out and looks at me and Natz to make sure we got the message.

"Ok give me a second" Natz says as she swaps her Seraphim for her wrecking rod. While dark would have been more effective the only dark staff she has is Hela's Staff which is would probably result in her dying instantly. She's already got her Pope gear on which should make her relatively immune to the golem's magical attacks so she doesn't touch them. I don't bother with changing mine and call in an area strike on the golem. The large black missile comes flying in and crits on two of the bits, killing them instantly. The others are heavily damaged and the Golem itself has also taken a decent amount of damage. A good start. Since the thunder and diamond bits are low on health they sacrifice themselves to use plasma cage and holy fire respectively trying to stun me with plasma cage and holy fire on Natz which does nothing. Somehow I resist the stun of the cage and I can still move though so it's fine. The golem stares at Anna and immediately tries to bodyslam her while summoning two more diamond bits, Anna simply dodges though and escapes unscathed.

"You know I think Matt would be really pissed if we didn't let him take part in this fight" Anna says pointedly to Natz and loads three normal sized arrows along with a larger clusterbomb tipped one into her bow. With a sharp intake of breath she fires the three normal arrows into the golem, staggering it and then quickly following up with the cluster bomb which explodes and hits all of them for high bomb damage.

"Alright, I'll revive him" Natz brings her hands to her chest and golden light falls on Matt. A second later he jumps up and shakes his head a bit to wake himself up.

"Alright, diamonds I'm coming" Matt grins and swaps sword out for Anarchy. Guess he read about the weakness to dark thing.

Since the bits were already damaged from the large cluster arrow I finish them off with a tank gun strafe from the Valkyrie. Both of them fall and the golem takes a couple of hits. I can see chunks flying off as it takes them. Oh boy.

It really doesn't seem too happy about that and smashes the ground, summoning an ice bit and thunder bit while also raining icicles on me. I manage to dodge the first one but the second and third catch me on the chest and back. An officer's jacket and hat doesn't really protect well from that and I grimace as three quarters of my health is taken away. Damn it.

"Ouch, looks painful" Anna glances at me as she rains an arrow storm on the foes. A decent chunk of their health falls away.

"Alright here goes, Matt raises his sword into and air and it flashes. Cleaver again. That tail stab must have really hit him hard to enable a Limit Break. I know that Matt once sliced the world in half so I can't help but feel sorry for the Golem. Each of the five slashes score critical hits and huge chunks break off it. Looks like Matt did a pretty big number on it.

Natz heals me without hesitation. It brings me all the way up to full health and I can't feel the pain of the icicles anymore. The effectiveness of healing magic is completely absurd.

"Ok well I can't let Matt outdo me" I grin as the Valkyrie lands on them and the bits shatter instantly. I quickly hop on and start firing directly into the Valkyries engine causing mini explosions which also damage the Golem. Then when the engine has reached critical mass I leap off as the entire tank explodes in the Golem's face. Looking at its health bar it seems that it's already at 25% health. Now just to hope that he doesn't have any crazy abilities like that ten cannon barrage from the Armoured Oak.

It raises its front legs again, probably to drop more icicles or something. What it actually does is much more horrifying.

"Natz isn't that your Genesis?" Matt looks fearfully as a giant holy cross with wings appears in front of us and grows. Oh Godcat it is. White light fills the cave and my skin starts to burn while I go completely blind. The worst part is that the pain doesn't seem to want to stop and very quickly I can feel myself falling...

 ** _Natalie_**

That was surprising to say the least. Lance and Matt don't even have the chance to scream before they die. Due to Seraphim and my Pope's dress no damage was done to me but Anna looks like she's barely standing. The Angel Wing badge must have given her just enough resistance to survive. The Golem and the bits it summoned have the telltale gold glow around them meaning that they've also gotten defend status for the turn. Where did the stupid rock get that amount of power from?

"Natz, a little help here?" Anna coughs and leans on her bow to stand upright, passing the first move to me.

"Oh right", I heal her quickly and she leaps up onto her feet once again, completely rejuvenated.

"Oh you are going to pay for that" she mutters as she drops a guardian on herself, buffing evade, defence and magical defence.

The two thunder bits both cast lightning bolts on me which actually sting quite a bit but luckily no stuns triggered. The Golem smashes the ground and another two bits appear as a white light descends on Anna. It even knows Judgement? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, I mean it casted Genesis after all but still.

A huge explosion and a pillar of light encases Anna. I hold my breath. Is she even alive? As the light of judgement dissipates I can see that Anna is weakened and heavily injured again but she's not dead yet. Exactly like the turn before I heal her quickly and as she straightens up again I can tell she's furious.

"Ok, that's it" she growls as she starts drawing in energy and slides an arrow into her bow string. As she starts pulling back the arrow the entire cave is assaulted by swirling wind with its focal point being her arrow which she holds still at max draw for a few seconds, closing her eyes and breathing in heavily as the arrow starts to create a vacumn around it. After another few seconds her emerald eyes, now practically sparkling with power snap open as she releases, the force emitted causes her to physically fly back as the arrow flies forth faster than my eyes can see. Power Blast really is an underwhelming name compared to what it can actually do. As the projectile flies into the Golem it explodes with such incredible energy that I swear half the diamonds fly off the thing while all of its helping bits shatter. Somehow it's still alive though and immediately smashes its front legs again. The cross materialises.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me" Anna stares wide eyed as once again the ground explodes in holy light. From her high pitched shriek I think I can safely assume she wasn't so lucky this time. I of course don't attack any damage whatsoever and instead I just seethe that this THING has used one of my ultimate techniques and even worse, it isn't even using it right. Genesis is meant to cast revive on teammates, not defend. Ugh. The air clears and Anna's also lying face down now. Guess they weren't prepared.

"You messed with the wrong team, you stupid rock" I scowl as I drink a chilli bottle. Molten hot pain fills my mouth and my limit break bar charges. I'm ready. The Golem, being too stupid to realise that I have 100% resistance to it, casts Genesis again and the bits use their normal barrage of useless elemental spells. As their turn ends I smile. Time to end the fight once and for all. I raise my staff and point it at the Golem. After a moments concentration I release my held breath and a black hole opens up and engulfs them. It dissipates after a couple of seconds or so but I can see that the damage has been done. The Golem is just a big pile of diamonds lying on the floor now and the bits are all gone. It's over.

"Natz? You beat them?" Lance sits up and looks a little shaky. After handing him an energy drink however he's completely alert again and the first thing he does is to grab my shoulders and search my body for injuries. Satisfied that there were none he breathes a sigh of relief and pulls me into another embrace. I could get used to this.

"Hey Lance you should give her that thank you gift now" Anna raises her head off the ground and smiles weakly at us, does she know what it is?

"Uh I-I dunno" Lance mumbles and blushes which just makes me even more curious.

"Come on Lance, I want to see it" I pout and shake him. Men.

"You sure?" he looks uncertainly at me.

"Yes, show me already" I say impatiently. He looks to the side.

"Oh just do it alre-" I get cut off.

Lance's lips are on mine, Anna's grinning like a madman and Matt's staring in horror. My legs turn to jelly and I almost fall but Lance catches me. Neither of us breaks the lip lock. We close our eyes.

* * *

 _Another chapter done, hopefully it was enjoyable, I'm going on holidays for three weeks so I probably won't post any new chapters for that time but I'm definitely not abandoning this fic. I'll get started on it again the moment I get back. Until next time._


	4. Chapter 4 Mother Earth

**Our Story isn't over yet: Chapter 4 Mother Earth**

 _So I'm back and this is another chapter. Some Anna appreciation in this one so if you're not a big fan of her you might not like it as much it but hopefully you still enjoy it. As usual favourites, follows and reviews are greatly appreciated but certainly not compulsory._

* * *

 ** _Anna_**

Natz and Lance look happy. I didn't even think that was possible for Lance unless it had something to do with guns but well the evidence is right in front of me. A proper, genuine smile has been on his face for the last ten minutes. The longest Lance had ever managed before was thirty seconds. To make things even more unbelievable Matt's got a scowl on his face. Matt the grinning swordsman, is angry at something that didn't just bludgeon, smash, cut, burn, freeze, missile, laser, punch or kill him five seconds ago. No, instead he's angry with Lance. Obviously Natz meant more to him than he let on that one time all the way back in the Ashwood Forest and she might think that I didn't catch her reaction but I saw it clear as day. Natalie felt more for Matt than a friend would have and it was incredibly obvious to everyone but the idiot didn't catch onto that and now he's lost the race he didn't even know had started.

"Ok, let's go in" Lance points at the steel entrance, similar to those that the factory had.

"I guess we have to advance at some point" Natz sighed from her spot on Lance's back and into his hair again. Matt just gets up and walks in without saying anything which leaves me to carry Lance's heavy ass guns because Natz usurped their normal place. Yay.

"Hrgh, oh man how can you even walk with these" my body already starts to feel numb as I put Juggernaut and its quiver in my hands while hoisting Lance's stupid Mini Bomber onto my back.

"Energy drinks is the answer, I'm going ahead, thanks again Anna!"

"Bye, have a fun time with that" the two of them snicker and run off without me. Ugh. Making sure to take small steps I slowly follow. The factories quite dark but I can see the others to the left, obviously standing there and waiting for me. In a moment of relief I almost trip over and set off the large group of Defenders and Satellite Towers but with a quick Reflex I manage to divert myself so that I turn to the left instead. With the added weight and momentum however I accidentally run into Matt, knocking him over.

"Oof!" he falls onto his back and my face hits his chest. The ground looks quite hard seeing as it's completely made of steel but thanks to Matt I don't hurt myself even with the added weight of the Mini Bomber.

"I appreciate it Anna, don't worry you won't have to carry that anymore" Lance takes his gun off my back while pulling me to my feet.

"Need a heal?" Natz's azure orbs peer into my own forest green ones, practically sparking with concern.

"No, Matt took the hit for me, help him" I point an arrow at the dazed and cross eyed blonde. One silent incantation later and he leaps to his feet, Anarchy glowing red and without hesitation he leaps overhead in his Revenge stance, the black blade finding its way into Lance's face.

* * *

 ** _Natalie_**

Whether it was on purpose or not I'm not sure but Matt does have his sword embedded in Lance's skull. Except the sword is Anarchy and with Lance's 200% dark resistance all it does is make for a cool party trick, the ghost sword through the face, that'll get the kids going.

"Uh Matt you mind?" Lance raised his left eyebrow.

"You never told me you were immortal soldier boy! OH MY GODCAT you're a ghost aren't you?" Matt's hand swings the black sword through Lance's body a couple of times eyes growing wider with each unsuccessful cut. I thought I explained the concept of resistance to him enough times but obviously not.

"Away! Get away from Natz you fiend! Or I shall have to cleanse you!" and with that Anarchy flashed before being replaced by Heaven's gate.

"Matt you're ins-Gasp" a hole appears in Lance's chest. A perfectly cauterized round hole that's wide enough to have destroyed both of his lungs. It's with a shocked expression that Lance falls over onto his face, none of us reacts for a second.

"Nononono this can't be happening, Lance!" tears start clouding my vision as I throw myself onto the ground healing magic already flowing through my veins. There's no blood, just a burnt hole and Lance lying face down, Matt's eyes are the size of forest slimes as he rapidly comes to the conclusion that Lance was not in fact another Akron and that he's currently lying face down, unable to breathe and has a 30cm wide hole in him. Anna rushes to my side and she's beginning the incantation for a Refresh. Placing both hands on Lance I focus all of my mana into th-

"Gasp" the factory room starts to darken and my body feels cold. So cold. My magic. It's disappearing from my fingertips, my chest, arms and legs now, why is the world spinning? What's wrong Anna? Why are you looking at me like that? What's a boomerang laser? Don't worry I'll be fine I just need to rest a bit…

* * *

 ** _Matt_**

"Natz? Natz!" I shake her still form a little and after she gives no response I start to process the sight beneath me. Natz and Lance with identical smoking holes in their chests. Face down and unmoving. Lifeless. Anna, on her knees with her hands on Lance's back, looking shell shocked. Eyes wide and mouth hanging open, green energy flickering around her ready to act. All of a sudden tears start flowing down her face and her magic detonates sending me flying back into the wall where I get a glimpse of the perpetrator.

"Beep Beep" the large flying robot whirs maliciously. It's very similar to the Praetorian. The armour is the same colour and the twin thrusters on its back look about the same as the old Praetorian's but the rest looks upgraded. Red markings crisscross over its obviously armoured outer hull, probably just some decorative markings. They're everywhere too! There's even a bunch radiating from the red gem in the centre of its shield! How vain for a machine. A small spike juts out from the top of its helmet and the area around the visor's darker. Instead of the thin red katana in its right hand it's holding a humongous red cleaver which glows with a powerful and murderous aura. The design of the body is the thing that surprises me the most though. The chest reaches forward in the shape of a mouth and it goes a lot further than the our Praetorian does and it doesn't join perfectly with the lower body, in fact it juts over so much that it's got space for a row of long metal teeth at the edge. An obvious weak point which I'll exploit, cutting it in half horizontally is the game plan.

"Anna, you work on those two, I'll deal with this pile of scrap" lifting Heaven's Gate I push myself off the wall and run towards the flying robot. It doesn't move. Good. 10 metres, 5 metres, 1 metre, striking distance! With a large leap into the air Heaven's Gate ignites with the fire of retribution. It's time to get Revenge for my friends.

"Eat this! Hng" with an acceleration downward at the speed of a comet I swing my sword into the unmoving robot. Clang! My blade hits the shield and bounces off harmlessly. Damn it. I'm still in midair though so the opportunity isn't gone yet.

"Not through yet!" this time like my original plan was, I swing my sword in a large horizontal ark with a direct course for the torso, it's obviously the weakest part of the armour and should be the easiest to break. With a click the upper and bottom body segments fly apart.

"Didn't even need to touch him with my sword, weak" I groan as I land on my feet, with a loud clank the two pieces fall in front of me. What a bore. I turn around and start walking back.

"Matt! Watch out!" Anna screams out as she looks up at me. She was three slashes and an explosion too late it seems as the world around me tips on its side. The last thing I see before I close my eyes is a large symbol appearing on the ground erupting with green light. It's quite soothing actually.

* * *

 ** _Anna_**

No Godcat, please no. Mother Earth help me! The smell of burnt flesh permeating the air is sickening. How can this be happening? Lance, Natz and Matt are strong damn it. Strong enough to face down Godcat and live, these wounds are nothing! They'll get back up, in fact that's probably what they're trying to do right now. Right? The four of us are indomitable aren't we? So why? Why?! Why are they lying on the ground with their faces in the ground and skin losing colour? Why is my magic not working? Why is Mother Earth not powerful enough to close those bleeding cuts and burning holes? Why is that no matter what I do they're still not standing up? Am I this weak? I can't do anything.

Lance, Natz, Matt they're all gone. It's funny, in the exact reverse order I met them, I now lose them. My friends. The ones that actually understand me. The saviours of the world four times over. The thieves that I tracked down. The ones that gave my archery meaning. Gave my life meaning.

Matt, the stupid sword freak. The idiot that ate five arrows in the head and stood up like it was nothing. The guy who sliced the Creator and Destroyer of worlds apart with just his will and his blade. The guy with access to an infinite amount of swords and a separate dimension just for them. Fearless, hot-headed and stupid Matt.

Natz, the ahem well-endowed mage with the fiery temper. The one that keeps us alive, and revives us when she can't. The only one I can talk to about girl things and not get Judged. With a capital J. The things she can do are extraordinary and the powers she wields are godly. Firestorm, Icestorm, Lightningstorm, Shockwave. All four elements at her fingertips. Judgement, Pulsar. Light and dark heed her call. Heal, Healmore, Revive. The powers of an angel. Righteous, kind and caring Natalie.

Lance, the cynical gunner. The guy that always keeps his cool. The one with the weapons of mass destruction and zero tolerance for those that choose to stand in our way. The irritating big brother that calls me 'little girl' but still follows me around anyway. The master of stealth, unseen, untouched and deadly. The reassuring PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW of that Unload, six shots that mark the doom of the one that was unlucky enough to be targeted. The raised eyebrow that follows a barrage asking for a Cleanse so that he may reload and Unload once more. Orbital Ion strikes purge the battlefield like the hammer of the gods. Nuclear missiles rain on our foes creating craters the size of Greenwood. The Valkyrie, impervious, relentless and dominating with its powerful machine guns, menacing tank cannons and crushing treads. Enigmatic, ruthless, dangerous Lance.

I'm going to miss them. Who cares about the blood red cleaver digging into my waist? Who cares if it's separating my body into two pieces? It's over.

* * *

It's bright. So bright. A soothing green is all I can see. Is this what death is?

" _Anna, who are you to yourself?"_ the angelic, calming voice calls out from all around me, a voice that I remember hearing before. No, it couldn't be…?

"Mother Earth? Is that you?" I turn around frantically, unconsciously gripping where my arrows should be. It's become my natural reaction to anything out of the ordinary happening now, hopefully she doesn't take it as a sigh of distrust.

" _Anna my child?"_ she persists. I force myself to think it through clearly. I should have known she wouldn't react like that.

"Me? I'm the little girl who couldn't save anyone" I sob out, the memories of the last few minutes attempting to destroy me completely. They burn worse than the fiery inferno that the Destroyer caused, cut deeper than the cleaver that bisected my body and aches harder than getting punching by all the foes in the world combined would. It's unbearable.

" _We both know that isn't true Anna. Look at what you've accomplished already. Fighting Godcat was something that few would have the will to do Anna and I'm glad to be able to call you a daughter of mine"_ despite all that's happened I find myself being comforted. Mother Earth always makes the pain go away somehow. That doesn't mean I'm convinced though.

"But I couldn't save them. I failed" I close my eyes, tears falling down my face.

" _It's not too late you know Anna. I can heal you with my magic but to save your friends you'll need to defeat the one who dealt those unholy wounds. I know the one that caused them is powerful but I also know you wouldn't dream of letting your friends down child. This is something you must do and if it requires my aid then so be it…"_ she says, voice starting to fade and the sea of green around starts to recede.

* * *

"No wait!" it's too late, I'm back. Natz is still lying on Lance and Matt is about 10 metres away. My wounds are gone and the robot is floating just above me, if it wasn't an unfeeling machine I would say that it's surprised at my miraculous recovery.

"Damn it!" I run back a good ten metres to put some distance between us while calling out the little scanbot.

"Praetorian MKII, super high evade, resistant to just about everything but weak to wind" I recite to myself out of habit. Taking a glance at the health bar makes me stop and stare though. It's way too large for me to be able to take on alone and to make matters worse two smaller floating claw robots decide to use this moment to teleport in. Terror takes hold of me completely as I slow down, how am I meant to beat this?

"Nothing for it then" I blow on my ocarina half-heartedly and summon a hurricane on the Praetorian, it takes all but one tenth of a second for it dash away and dodge it. Just as I thought. Hopelessness fills my chest and I'm starting to hyperventilate. It's useless.

" _Anna, calm down. Take in a few deep breaths. That's it. Good girl. Now I know this situation looks bad but that doesn't mean it's impossible. You'll see"_ the goddess tells me in my head.

"Ok fine" I steel myself for the impending assault. The two razor claws act before the Praetorian. The first one summons some kind of red laser sword and tries to run me through with it. Needless to say I dodge it with ease. The second one tries to grapple me, even slower than the first. In fact they were so terrible I give both a quick Combo Shot in the face for their troubles. I'm almost happy with myself when they fall. It doesn't last long. The Praetorian moves so quickly I can't even see the swing, let alone dodge it. Damn it.

Boom. A loud thundering sound echoes through the factory. Looking up I see the most amazing sight. Our Praetorian is blocking the enemy Praetorian's cleaver with its shield. The two of them are locked mid clash. Neither wants to give an inch but our Praetorian's shield and energy field are obviously starting to crack under the insane pressure of its opponents blade.

" _Anna, now's your chance, don't worry I'll assist you. Just follow your instincts"_ Mother says calmly. The hopelessness is replaced with something else. Something wild, untamed and very very angry. Emerald flames burst out from somewhere within me and the cavern lights up. The fire spreads and burns away all the metal and wires that make up the cave. It's immediately followed by a sweeping pulse of energy that flies across the now natural dirt walls and ground, flowers, vines and trees appearing behind it. When the emerald fire reaches our Praetorian however, instead of destroying it utterly it seems to try and help. Things start growing on the friendly robot. The almost split shield is suddenly reinforced with hardened wood. Its thrusters are supported by a group of flowers charging them with solar and wind power. Small shrubs grow on the sword and shield handles to give better grip. Small things but combined they're just enough to stop the other Praetorian's blade from descending. Mother Earth's symbol appears underneath the other Praetorian, vines shooting out and entrapping it so that it can't evade. This is probably the best chance I'm going to get.

Normally I wouldn't attempt something like this but with Gaia's reassuring power coursing through me I just take a breath and ready myself.

"Mighty Oak, now!" I shout as I pull three arrows from my quiver. With a loud creak the giant tree leaps over my head and onto the enemy Praetorian. With a quick sharpening of its battering ram arm it quickly starts hammering down on the enemy Praetorian's sword arm, allowing our Praetorian to force its blade back. After another three hits on the joint it finally breaks and the arm flies off allowing our Praetorian to start going on the offensive. The enemy Praetorian just simply raises its shield arm however and a strange red barrier appears in front of it, obviously some kind of force field. That doesn't stop our Praetorian and Mighty Oak though as they start hammering and chopping away at it. While this is happening I've pulled out my Sky Feather and loaded the three arrows in. 500km/h winds start buffeting the little cave as I start to pull back. They intensify as I draw further back and by the time I make it to the half draw point they're casting Shockwaves on the enemy Praetorian and contributing to breaking down the field along our Praetorian and Mighty Oak. Without me having to say a word, both our Praetorian and Mighty Oak pull back, preparing for one final attack to break the barrier. After about five seconds another Shockwave charges and starts to fly toward the barrier. At the same moment our Praetorian lifts its sword and points at the barrier too, the golden yellow beam of Lance's Ion cannon piercing the roof of the factory and flying at the same destination of the Shockwave. The Mighty Oak leaps into the air directly in front of the barrier and just as he reaches the apex of his jump they hit.

The golden ten metre wide Ion beam surrounded by swirling Shockwaves fly into the Mighty Oak. Propelled with the force of the lightning wind laser the Oak's battering ram slams into the barrier. The barrier strains and the enemy Praetorian is pushed back a bit but it's still holding strong. We need just a bit more power. Mother Earth who's still with me chuckles as the symbol of Gaia underneath the constricted Praetorian burns brighter and an emerald pillar flies upward completely encasing the enemy Praetorian, now faced with devastating attacks buckles under the pressure and the barrier cracks. That was all we needed. It's only a second later when the barrier shatters and its shield breaks letting the Oak, Ion, Shockwave and Mother Earth through shredding the enemy Praetorian's frontal hull and damaging its thrusters. Obviously not enough though because with that the damaged robot separates its body parts again and sending out the boomerang laser it took out Natz and Lance with from between its separated body parts, holding the incoming barrage for a second. That one second was all it needed though as from the place that the boomerang laser came out of, a cloud of black appears and starts seeping into space around it. Those red markings are similar to the ones on the cosmic monolith that we summon so it's probably preparing for some dark ability. I'm proven right as slanted demonic eyes appear among the cloud and the screams of a million people ring out almost causing me to drop my bow and it's all I can do to not let go and waste all my hard work.

Those agonising screams are cut short however when Mighty Oak delivers an uppercut to the enemy Praetorian's lower body, causing it fly upwards whilst our Praetorian slashed the top half downward so that the two collide and get forced together in midair. With the distraction gone I push out one more gargantuan burst of energy and suddenly I'm at full draw and ready. Wordlessly Mighty Oak grabs the damaged enemy Praetorian and throws it upward as our Praetorian flew high into the air to intercept it. Once the enemy Praetorian was up high enough our Praetorian grabbed it and held it still. Mighty Oak grabs me and throws me up even higher than the Praetorians and I angle myself so I'm looking down on them as I start to fall. One hundred metres above the ground should make for enough of an impact to finish him once and for all. Just by narrowing my eyes I cast Absolute Zero freezing the enemy Praetorian in a giant cube of ice and the moment the whole body was frozen our Praetorian quickly withdrew a good distance away and let the ice cube fall.

"Burn in the equivalent of robot hell, you monster" I grit my teeth and I finally release my drawstring. Three Power Blasts in one shot. Flying downwards at Mach III they smash into the falling ice cube like a shooting star, shattering the surface hull of the machine completely and dragging the rest downwards with them. When they finally land the impact is catastrophic. A ten kilometre wide crater is created and the sound blast sends my flying even further upward. Good thing the Ion cannon destroyed the ceiling. The world is quite beautiful from up here honestly even through blurred and failing eyes with its blue seas and lands of green, orange and red. The sounds of birds and crickets ringing out through the night are also fading along with my vision. Even my sense of touch and smell.

I'm going to miss feeling the wind in my hair. I'm going to miss hearing the birds chirp. I'm going to miss saving the world. I'm going to miss braiding my hair. I'm going to miss being alive. Most of all though I'm going to miss them. Matt, Natz, Lance and NoLegs. My friends.

I'm not going to survive this fall but I find it difficult caring. I've won. I've saved them.

* * *

 _Hey, hope you liked it. If you're thinking Anna was way too overpowered here you don't need to worry. The other characters will get similar love. RPG turn system is going to broken very soon and then the real story can start. See you next time._


End file.
